You automatically have copyrights on anything you write, as soon as you write it.

But if you want to have exclusive rights to that phrase, (where you own that phrase and can stop other people from using it) you'll need to (pay to) register your written work with the Copyright Office and have them assign a registration number to it.

If you were going to use the phrase on t-shirts, that might require a trademark, which costs a boatload and requires a lawyer.

Related Discussions

I haven't been in HP for a spell because work has kept me so busy for the past few weeks. Upon my return to publish a new hub, I finished my work and included my usual (and short) copyright notice in a text capsule. When I went to publish my hub I saw the style notice which indicated that HP added...

Just a reminder to update the copyright notice on your Hubs to the year 2012. If you don't have a notice on your Hubs, consider adding one. There have been many forum posts recently about plagiarism of Hubs. Although your work is protected without this notice, I feel it is...

After noticing a bunch of broken links appearing on my hubs I traced the problem to where I link to MyFreeCopyRight.com on each of my hubs. When I tried to login to MFC it said I didn't have an account at all. Next I tried to email the website several times and have as of yet to receive a...

For the last two years, I've been wading knee deep in historic documents, court transcripts, and semi-pointless stories. The point? To write a book chronicling the growth of a proto-typical Oklahoma town. So far, I've reached nearly 40,000 words, not including notes. I have about...

So, it has come to my attention that copyrighting things may be a pretty good idea. I was wondering how you guys are doing it.I understand that one can register with the actual copyright office for a small fee (naturally), but that seems a little extreme. I just want to protect myself and my work....

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)

Google AdSense Host API

This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)

This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)

Facebook Login

You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)

Maven

This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)

We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.

Conversion Tracking Pixels

We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.

Statistics

Author Google Analytics

This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)

Comscore

ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)

Amazon Tracking Pixel

Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)